Patchwork Quilt
That is life. A patchwork quilt.
In our youth, the people we grow up with, those who are present in our lives on a regular basis, they weave together into a habble-scrabble of a quilt. Perhaps they all look similar. Or perhaps they are from a range of ethnicities and religions. Everyone’s quilt looks different.
But, bottom line, everyone’s quilt provides the comfort of familiarity.
Returning to my childhood home for 10 days has been a chemistry experiment of memories, triggers, visits from and with old childhood friends, my parents’ friends, and the neighbors I grew up with. There is a comfort in being with them. A familiarity of faces, perfumes, voices, and behaviors.
And then, the realization that you are not the child they watched grow up, and there is no longer the divide of adults and children. You are an adult now, a peer, a career woman and experienced mother. Someone they can have a real, peer level conversation with. And you smile inside for the changes and shifts going on that no one feels but is somehow palpable – to you, anyhow.
What does your patchwork quilt look like? What faces are in it? What parks and cars and vacations and trees or flowers are in it? Perhaps headstones of loved-ones passed. Stop and think about your quilt. There are certain areas you are likely to have rubbed soft for gleaning comfort from it for decades, and other areas you keep at your feet since they are less impactful on your life. Areas and faces and memories that make you smile no matter what may be going on around you when you think of them, and other memories that bring about a sting of nostalgia, or even pain and tears.
Love your quilt. It is a part of you. If your quilt is mostly difficult to look at, think of all the lessons you learned, the strength of character you built, from those patches. Overall, the quilt can provide warmth and cover. Brought out from the trunk at the foot of your bed for cold, lonely, or sad times. Or to join you when celebrating happy ones. Either way, it is your quilt.
With love and nostalgic tones,
Devorah
Beit Roga
Are you interested in some serious R & R? Want a fully planned getaway - especially for you - at a luxurious hotel in the Dead Sea, for 28 hours?
(C'mon, who would really say "no" to an offer like that? :)
We're going to the Dead Sea! Come along!!!
